In 2017, she accompanied her then-husband and former prime minister Justin Trudeau to Italy. They met Pope Francis for the first time at the Vatican
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By National Post Staff
Published Apr 23, 2025
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After the death of Pope Francis on Monday, Sophie Grégoire Trudeau posted about an interaction she had with the leader of the Catholic Church.
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What Pope Francis told Sophie Grégoire Trudeau when she asked him: 'You have a vice?' Back to video
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In 2017, she accompanied her then-husband and former prime minister Justin Trudeau to Italy. They met Pope Francis for the first time at the Vatican. Grégoire Trudeau revealed what their brief exchange was about in an Instagram post on Tuesday.
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What happens now that Pope Francis has died?
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She included a photo of her next to Pope Francis with a caption that began: “When do you ever have the Pope’s ear?”
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She said in the “rare moment” she leaned in to whisper to the pope, “I hear you have a vice?”
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“He looked at me with the wide, curious eyes of a child. I added: ‘Maple syrup.’ He burst into laughter,” Grégoire Trudeau continued. “But what stayed with me most was what he said at the end. He looked at me intently and asked, ‘Please pray for me.'”
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In the Instagram caption, she goes on to explain that she is “deeply spiritual” but “not religious.” She said that she does “pray that we human beings continue to see our truth and our capacity to learn, to forgive, and to evolve.”
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“I will always devote myself to gathering, nourishing, and amplifying the better angels of our nature. Rest in peace Pope Francis,” she ended the post.
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Grégoire Trudeau also wrote about meeting Pope Francis in a Facebook post in 2017.
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At the time, she said: “What an enriching experience it was to meet with Pope Francis. I cherish our common belief that people of all faiths and backgrounds must stand united for peace.”
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Although the pope has not publicly proclaimed his love for maple syrup, he did seem enthused when it was gifted to him by a young boy from Winnipeg in 2016. The boy, identified as Ryan, was selected to meet Pope Francis after he contributed to a children’s book by the Catholic leader, CBC News reported.
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Ryan travelled with his father to the Vatican, where he gifted the pope with a bottle of maple syrup. Pope Francis laughed and responded: “This is good.”
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In 2015, B.C. couple Joseph and Marion San Jose gifted the pope with a custom Vancouver Canucks hockey jersey while they were honeymooning in Rome, per CBC News. Their gift, they said, was meant to differentiate themselves from other Canadians, including some of Joseph’s co-workers who had previously given the pope maple syrup.
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“We started thinking what we should give the Pope that’s just as Canadian, but isn’t maple syrup…Because we feel like he gets a lot of maple syrup from Canadians,” he said.
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